When your husband asks you for a puppy…

Let me offer up two suggestions. When your husband asks you if you can get a puppy, do not make a decision after consuming any amounts of alcohol. Secondly, do not answer in the middle of a work event. If you do, you will end up with a puppy that is now peeing all over your brand new home and chewing on all your brand new furniture.

Several months ago, our cat ran away. Mario asked if we could get another pet to replace her. I said “someday”. I made it clear we had new house, a toddler, another dog, trying to get pregnant, and that “someday” was not in the near future. Then he brought up the idea again just before Christmas. This time his sales pitch was “Wouldn’t it be great for Jace to learn how to take care of a puppy? They would grow up to be best friends.” Great. Now I have these adorable Anne Geddes images of my son and his little pup engrained in my brain. I said “Let me think about it.”

A couple of weeks later, after a few glasses of wine, he brings it up again. Now I’ve started to rationalize it in my head. I figured I wasn’t getting a puppy when I was pregnant or had a newborn. So if we didn’t do it now, then it could be several years. Again, I had a couple of glasses of wine. I said “Let’s look into it.”

A week later, I’m in Charlotte covering a bowl game. I am literally walking to the stadium when Mario calls me. He says he found the puppy we wanted, a female yellow lab, but we need to make the decision now. This breeder only has one left. I’m in the middle of work! So I said “Sure.” Face palm emoji.

Last Monday we picked up Isabelle “Izzy” Toledo. Last Monday I was also reminded that a puppy it like having another baby. A “up-every-45-minutes-during-the-night, peeing-everywhere-with-no-diaper, teething, crying baby.”

I know what you’re thinking. “But she’s so cute! Look at that face! I want to squeeze her!” Trust me, I see the DMs on Instagram. She is totally cute! But she’s also a lot of work. Most of the time work > cuteness. Especially when you have to spend 90% of your time chasing a toddler.

Speaking of the toddler, my vision of Jace and Izzy being besties isn’t going according to plan. Izzy likes to bite (nibble) on Jace’s legs, his clothes, his blanket, really anything she get his little teeth into. In return, Jace likes to pick Izzy up and throw her. I turned my head for a minute and Jace was chasing her with his plastic baseball bat! So we’ve got some work to do in that area. I’m still hopeful…

I regretted the decision the first week. So did my babysitters. But week two is going a little smoother. Izzy now sleeps through the night most nights. She doesn’t cry in her crate. And Jace hasn’t tried to body slam her today, so that’s progress.

I’ll let you guys know next week how we’re all holding up. If you have any suggestion on how to get Izzy to stop eating my furniture and my ankles, I’ll take them!!